A turbulent year for the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) could soon lead to a major overhaul. According to a Cricbuzz report, the five-time IPL champions are set to release as many as five players ahead of the IPL 2026 mini auction. Even before 50 matches of the season got completed, CSK became the first team at IPL 2025 to be eliminated. They managed to win just two out of their first 10 games, a low that CSK never saw coming.
CSK’s list of releases for IPL 2026
The list reportedly includes England allrounder Sam Curran, New Zealand opener Devon Conway, and Indian trio Deepak Hooda, Vijay Shankar and Rahul Tripathi. The development comes just months after CSK’s worst-ever campaign, where they finished bottom of the IPL 2025 table with only four wins in 14 matches.
Despite the return of MS Dhoni as captain, the team never found its rhythm. The franchise’s old-age strategy of relying on experienced players backfired, with several senior names struggling for form and fitness. Owing to Tripathi, Shankar, Conwat and Hooda’s awful forms, CSK scored the fewest runs (693) at a tenth-worst economy rate of 137.50 in the first six overs. Not to mention, CSK also lost 29 wickets in the process. That is basically an average score of 49/2 in every game inside the powerplay.
Overall, CSK batters scored 2315 runs in the entire tournament at an ordinary strike rate of 138.29, which is also the lowest. The next worst is KKR with an SR of 143.20. This is despite CSK faced the most deliveries (1674) in the tournament (till Match 69).
Sources close to the team have indicated that the management wants to “refresh” the squad with younger, more dynamic options. The franchise has already been handed a financial boost following Ravichandran Ashwin’s retirement from the IPL. Ashwin, who played seven games last season, announced his retirement in August after finishing as the league’s fifth-highest wicket-taker with 187 wickets in 221 matches. His exit has freed up Rs 9.75 crore in the purse, giving the Super Kings valuable flexibility heading into the mini auction.
If the reported releases of Curran, Conway, Hooda, Tripathi and Shankar are confirmed by the November 15 retention deadline, CSK could add more than Rs 25 crore to their purse. Curran, bought for a hefty sum at the 2023 auction, never quite replicated his early IPL success. Conway’s form, meanwhile, has dipped sharply since his injury in 2024, while domestic batters Tripathi and Hooda endured forgettable seasons with the bat.
